Color me shocked! "Firms with Bush ties snag first Katrina deals"

[Bluebear]

Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.

One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.

Bechtel National Inc., a unit of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., has also been selected by FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by the hurricane. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050910/pl_nm/contracts_dc&printer=1

[hedda_foil]

1. Vote this one up on Yahoo.

[JanMichael]

2. I hate them. All of them. They are pirates.

Viscious nasty blood sucking scum.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. No, just businessmen pushing the boundaries of "the system".... nt

[JanMichael]

6. Well yes which shows how sick the "system" is.

And still scum.

[BlueEyedSon]

16. Democrats will be little better unless we can "fix the system"

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. what is the color of shocked?

Reaching for my box of paints...

[Bluebear]

9. In this case choose a light August caucasian tan

Because I am not shocked in the least. :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

hmm looking at my box, yep I have that color

you want some rosy for them cheeks too?

[Bluebear]

19. A bit. But nothing unmanly.

You know, natural-like. lol

[RandomKoolzip]

5. Ah, the Free Market!

Can't ya just smell the "free"dom?

[Child_Of_Isis]

7. tapped

Man, I hate that word. It sounds like a fraternity. It is used a lot concerning shrub-0 and his friends.

[Jose Diablo]

8. Gosh, who coulda anticipated this? n/t

[dogday]

10. The Rich get Richer while The Poor are homeless

bastard, greedy bastards one and all....

[leftofthedial]

11. they spent the first four days calling their buddies

instead of saving lives

Republicans! Wonderful people, really.

[Egalitariat]

12. Which co's are capable of doing that work that DON'T have ties to Bush?

I'm sure there are some, but I don't know who they are.

In other words, who are KBR's most capable competitors that aren't tied to the * admin?

[Bluebear]

14. Ask the administration.

Ask which firms were considered beofre KBR was given the contract.

[leesa]

23. I would guess the answer to that is "none"

I remember a few companies coming out briefly after the invasion of Iraq, when Halliburton was awarded some of its first no-bid contracts, they were pissed and said they could do better, which was likely true.

[Mutley]

13. Gee. I never woulda guessed.

[JDPriestly]

15. Republicans want to destroy the civil service system.

They are rabidly attacking the public employees' unions here in California. They want to be able to appoint cronies and political hacks to the positions at all level of government.

Republicans are not just attacking the legacy of FDR. They are also attacking the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt. They are opening our national parks to exploitation. They do not enforce antitrust laws. And now, they are aggressively attacking the civil service system at all levels. This is outrageous.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. Behind the scenes

they are greedily rubbing their hands together thinking about how much richer they're all going to be after this is over. This is blood money, pure and simple.

[alphafemale]

18. The first thing that came to mind was that of that body snagged by a bush

posted here earlier.

[bajamary]

20. Also: A Stench: Mobile Morgues, Brown, Funeralgate, FEMA - a Cover-up?

There's another excellent post over on the greatest discussion area on how a private contractor corp with ties to Bush & Co is going to be the one's "counting up the dead" (my quotes).

This company, SCI Corporation has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Kenyon International, which has been deployed, with a mobile morgue, to NOLA.

One of the things in this post that I find so unsettling is that this private Corp will be able to make decisions to do complete or partial autopsies and from that they will extrapolate how many people died from the actual hurricane or from other causes. The media should know about this one.

I quote here from sandnsea's post in this discussion (I trust he won't mind this).

"You may remember Service Corporation International, SCI, as it was part of the case against confirming Alberto Gonzales due to his involvement in the Texas and Florida scandals known as Funeralgate. As we covered back in February, Service Corporation International was "recycling" graves, removing the bodies that were there originally and throwing them in the woods to use the space to house new customers at two Jewish cemeteries in Florida . Service Corporation International, the world’s largest funeral service company, is headed by Robert Waltrip, a longtime friend and generous financial patron of the Bush family."

[Bluebear]

21. Look up Joe Allbaugh

He was appointed by Bush to head FEMA and abruptly resigned in 2002 without reason. The press dropped it like a hot potato and Brown took over from Allbaugh.

[FreedomAngel82]

22. As the old saying goes

follow the money.